Honey, I shrunk the collection

After years of having to dress their children in polycotton prints and stiff little party dresses, parents are at last being offered a choice with designer childrenswear. And it's not something the designers are showing signs of growing out of

It's the middle of January, the sun has just come out and a watery light is doing its best to warm up the Fortezza da Basso, an old fortress in the middle of Florence that is used to stage the biannual fashion shows here. Inside, however - this being the world of international fashion - there's no sign of spring, still less summer, because the buyers, designers, press and TV crews, have their minds firmly set on autumn/winter 2000.

There are nearly 300 labels here and, of course, a strict hierarchy applies. Will you be front row for the shows, in which case you must arrive just as it's about to begin, or will you just be standing? Do you visit Versace, Moschino, Paul Smith, or will it be the no-name brands you've never heard of? Some stands are walled up, and if they don't know you personally, you won't be let in. It's well known that high-street chains come to these events precisely to spy - sorry, be inspired by - the leading designers, only - curiously enough- to come up with something very similar six months later.

So far, so AbFab. The thing is, though, that this is not womenswear, nor even menswear, but childrenswear, which has been big business throughout Europe for some time, and is now, finally, starting to boom in Britain.

Not that long ago, in a land not very far away, children were never heard, and seen only occasionally. If they were posh, they wore frilly little velvet and lace numbers or for boys a decent bit of tweed. If not, it was cotton flowery dresses, sweaters with bunnies sewn on and lots of shockingly bright pink. Children were the land that fashion forgot.

Back then - oh, all of five years ago - the idea of designers of the stature of Clements Ribeiro, Jasper Conran, Elspeth Gibson, and Katharine Hamnett designing for children seemed fanciful. Yet today, all these and more (Hamnett's first collection outside Japan is launched in the autumn) are not just doing children's collections, but thriving on them. Even Gucci is set to enter the sector, when it launches its own range.

Suzanne Clements, one half of the design duo Clements Ribeiro, says they had been considering doing childrenswear for a while, but it was the birth of her son that threw it into focus. 'Before I had Hector, I didn't give a damn about children's clothes,' she says, 'but since I've had him, there seems to be designer childrenswear everywhere.'

It is difficult to overstate how much the industry has changed in the past five years - from one dominated by uninspired, uninteresting clothing, all cheap polycotton prints, stiff, formal party dresses and cutesy, over-decorated toddlerwear, to one affected by fashion trends almost as much as the adult ranges.

Take combat trousers, a fashion trend that refuses to go away. A few years ago, it would have bypassed children completely, despite its obvious relevance - as a fashion, it makes a lot more sense for an eight-year-old boy (or girl), with a love of collecting things and carrying their world around with them, than it does for a 25-year- old advertising executive. Within six months of combats hitting the adult fashion scene, they had taken over children's fashion to the extent that there is not a major retailer which does not have rails of them in store.

Last year, the dominant colours were greys, earth tones and winter whites, again following on from adult trends. Go to the childrenswear shows in Florence or Brussels and you will see as much direction there, as many clear new trends, as you will on the catwalks of Milan, Paris or London.

Why is this happening now? In 1971, when many of today's parents were in the middle of their own childhoods, the average age of a mother when she had her first child was under 24. Today it's over 29, so that by the time most of us become parents we've got more money, and we are more established in our homes, careers and relationships. We're also at the stage when we've had a decade of partying, holidaying and - crucially - spending money on clothes for ourselves.

Having a child is no longer the abrupt end to our lives it may have seemed in our early twenties. In our thirties, it's the beginning of our new lives, and we want to enjoy our children, spend money on them, celebrate them. We also want them to look as though they are our children, and not some extra imported from a BBC costume drama.

David Keyte, who runs one of the best children's fashion shops in the country, Obi in Nottingham, used to work for Paul Smith in the early days of the menswear revolution. He opened his shop four years ago, just as the changes were really starting to take hold.

'We saw an opportunity that kids could be fashionable, that there could be stylish children's clothing and, although the market has changed more slowly than perhaps we thought, I don't see many parents wanting to go out and buy traditional childrenswear.'

Eva Karayiannis, owner of new children's shop Caramel in London's chic Brompton Cross area, agrees. The shop opened last September and has been doing a roaring trade since then. It's even had such hot items as ponyskin clogs made by the same people who made those must-have Marni clogs.

'I thought it was crazy to dress children as if they were from another century,' says Karayiannis. 'They should be able to dress in clothes that are right for the life they lead today. In this area we're lucky enough to have some wonderful shops [the area is home to Joseph, Paul Smith, Voyage, Agnès b] and that means the mothers like to dress their children like that, too.'

Cue lots of articles about designer children and babies as fashion accessories, illustrated by pics of young celebrity mums with Bill Amberg baby carriers. But features such as these betray a complete lack of understanding of what it is to be a parent today - the juggling, the compromises, the pride and the pleasure. Becoming a parent is most definitely not about fashion, unless you consider a stain of posset on your shoulder to be the latest look. But it also isn't about giving up our interest in how we, and our children, look. It doesn't mean we don't - or shouldn't - care about how our children dress.

'I don't think children will ever be a fashion accessory,' says Obi's David Keyte. 'I think people have children because they want children. But when they have children they want to put their kids in nice things. They're not suddenly going to get into flowery dresses. And, nowadays, by the time kids are eight or nine, they want to choose nice items for themselves.'

Just how quickly the market has grown can be demonstrated by the Boden story. Started as a menswear-basics mail-order catalogue - mostly fleeces and sweatshirts - Boden took off when it began its childrenswear catalogue, Mini Boden. Just three years later, the children's catalogue is responsible for 40 per cent of the company's business, with over 100,000 customers.

The other factor driving children's fashion is the fact that today's parents - or at least those who appeal to the ad agencies and marketing departments - are in general aged between 28 and 43. Ten years ago, they were aged between 18 and 33 and were the same bunch of fashion-aware, media literates who drove the style press, youth TV, fashion and PR businesses, and are now often in key positions in their chosen careers.

Hence, not just the rise in children's designer fashion, but also child-friendly holidays, child-friendly restaurants, child-friendly accessories, and child-friendly politics (it's no coincidence that Labour have concentrated so heavily on early and primary education and childcare).

This was also the generation responsible for the menswear revolution, which, within the space of five years, made it acceptable for men to care about the way they look. The link to menswear is an important one, with many believing that the children's fashion industry is in a similar position to the men's market 10 or 15 years ago. Belle Goode, who designs and runs Jigsaw Junior, Jigsaw's successful childrenswear offshoot, says: 'In the mid- to late-80s, there was a huge rise in men's fashion, and I think these days men are generally aware of the way they look. The same thing has happened for children, in part because how children look reflects on their parents.'

Back in the 80s, it was Next that provided the big shift in menswear, that said to ordinary men that it was OK to care about what you wore, that suits didn't have to last until they wore out. Today, Gap is performing a similar role in the childrenswear market, and it is impossible to underestimate the change it is effecting on the whole sector. By investing in prime sites, by constantly revamping its collections, not just twice a year, but every six weeks, and by producing not just well-made goods but ones that are fashionable (it had the hippie bohemian look last summer before anyone else), it is raising the standard that parents expect from childrenswear shops.

In the middle market, it is forcing all the stores to reassess their offerings, with store and range revamps from H&M, and completely new and fashionable collections from Marks & Spencer, including a nursery range that includes an exclusive Land Rover all-terrain pushchair (in black!) that will sell and sell. At the bottom end, they have showed up the paucity of the offerings from such stalwarts as C&A and the near-terminal Mothercare, which has attempted its own revamp, even buying in mid-market designer labels in some stores.

And at the top end it is providing a solid base, just as Next did, on which the top levels can grow and flourish. As Suzanne Clements, who admits to having some babyGap in her son's wardrobe, says: 'When I take Hector to playgroup, I see children dressed in head-to-toe Gap, often in the same outfit, and you want something different, something that looks fresh.' In her case, it's easy. She and her partner Inacio Ribeiro travel the world on business, usually taking young Hector with them and, as a result, Hector's wardrobe comes from all over the world - Japan, the Punjab, Brazil, and, of course, the couple's own acclaimed baby collection in cashmere.

Menswear pioneer Paul Smith was again one of the first into this new market, introducing Paul Smith for Children in 1990. It was, he says, a direct response to his customers who had begun to enter their thirties and parenthood. 'Initially, it was developed as a boys' collection,' he says, 'as so many of our customers had been asking for it. It did really well, so when we launched Paul Smith Women I added girlswear to the range, too.'

The range has now been broadened further, with some made-to-measure items at the Westbourne House flagship store in London's Notting Hill. The shop also features a purpose-built playroom and a splitting of the range into three distinct labels for autumn/winter 2000 - Paul Smith Sport, Paul Smith for Children and Paul Smith Blue Label.

Astute as ever, Smith's timing has been impeccable, and there is generally a well-placed understanding of what is needed for visually strong outfits that are also wearable and child-appropriate. Although the range is quite separate from the men's and women's collections, there is a definite link between it and the two adult lines. 'Some of the key pieces from my mainline collections are scaled down to fit a little person,' he says, 'such as our menswear jacket complete with contrast-colour top-stitching and a bright patchwork lining.'

Smith was also one of the first to spot the mass-market potential of designer childrenswear, with Freemans mail-order catalogue carrying his children's T-shirts. He's not the last, though. In June 1998, the Top Shop-to-Burton group Arcadia bought the Liverpool-based group Wade Smith for £15.8m, announcing that it saw growth potential in catering for the demand for designer childrenswear among the not- so-middle classes.

The store heavily features the big name brands, such as Ralph Lauren, Armani, DKNY, Calvin Klein, YSL and Ted Baker, and marks out the north-west along with Essex as one of the birthplaces of designer childrenswear for the less affluent. It was in these two areas that designer menswear really took hold, and so it's not surprising to see the same labels - Armani, CP Company, Replay and Paul Smith - walking out of childrenswear stores by the taxi-full.

The latest to move in on the childrenswear market has been Debenhams, which has extended its Designers at Debenhams range into childrenswear, first with Jasper Conran, with baby and boyswear at Christmas, and just a couple of weeks ago, with the Sweet pea girlswear collection from the acclaimed British designer, Elspeth Gibson.

Gibson, one of this country's hottest talents and the New Generation Designer of the Year 1998, had never designed childrenswear before, but says she had great fun designing the collection, which ranges from ages three to eight, despite not having children of her own. 'I wanted to do something a little bit special,' she says, 'but I also wanted it to be fun and easy-going.

Now, Gibson is expecting her first child, a little girl in May, and has already designed the autumn/winter 2000 collection. Her summer collection is, apparently, selling like hot cakes, with the first items gaining repeat orders from the stores just a week after going on sale. Like the Jasper Conran boyswear, the range is very affordable (from £6 to £26) and, following on from her own womenswear collection, mixes traditional femininity with a modern sensibility.

But it's not all plain sailing. With one or two exceptions, there's still - comparatively - a lack of good boyswear, and there have been casualties. The fact is, the market is, and will always be, small compared with womenswear and menswear, if only because prices are lower (and this despite the fact that the costs are not necessarily that different - although fabric costs may be cheaper, the manufacturing costs for childrenswear may be as high as womenswear, and design costs possibly higher, due to the various safety regulations that apply). Dries van Noten, for example, had to give up doing his childrenswear collection, possibly the most exquisite in the world, when work pressures caused him to choose between that or the vastly more profitable menswear.

But the days of the pink frilly dress and the tweed jacket have gone forever. At least that's what I thought until I went to the childrenswear shows in Florence last month to see the autumn/winter 2000 collections and saw... bright pink and tweed everywhere. But that's fashion for you.

 Chris Taggart is editor-in-chief of the upmarket parenting magazine Junior, the March/April issue of which has just been published. The first British Junior Fashion Week runs to 26 February, with events in shops around the country. The Junior Fashion Awards sponsored by M&S and in aid of the NSPCC are at the Dorchester Hotel Ballroom on 25 February. Clements Ribeiro babywear is available by mail order on 020 7409 7719. Caramel, 291 Brompton Road, London SW3 (020 7589 7001). Obi, King John's Arcade, Bridlesmith Gate, Nottingham (0115 988 1515). Wade Smith Junior has branches in Liverpool, Sheffield, Manchester and Bluewater Shopping Centre, Kent